Books, arts and culture

Spike Lee and Kickstarter

Well funded

“IT'S like a political campaign. You have to be on it every day, update stuff every day.” Spike Lee, film director and newly tenured professor of New York University’s film school, is assessing his first encounter with Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website. In July 2013 he set about raising $1,250,000 to make “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus”—a film that has yet to be released—and his efforts paid off handsomely.

In choosing to finance his film through crowdfunding he says he was not turning his back on Hollywood and studio funding. “It was not an ‘F— You’ to the studio system at all,” he says. “They are looking for tent-pole movies, movies that make a billion dollars, open on the same day all around the world. This film isn’t what they are looking for.”

For his introduction to Kickstarter, Mr Lee went to the experts: the funding platform’s co-founders Charles Adler, Yancey Strickler and Perry Chen. “They said the two reasons that people fail on Kickstarter is that they don’t have a realistic idea of how much money they can raise or how long it will take to raise that. I had a higher number and they said, ‘Look Spike you should be a little more conservative’ and I’m very grateful they gave me that advice”. They suggested a target figure of $1,250,000, Mr Lee agreed and the film’s budget was revised accordingly.

On his Kickstarter page he gave away precious little about the film itself, simply calling it “The Latest Hottest Spike Lee Joint” and giving a Twitter-style plot summary that promised addiction, blood, humour and sex. In case that wasn’t sufficiently alluring, he “went to the wall” raiding his personal archive for suitable enticements to attract backers. “You know people work hard for their money and they’re not going to give it away just because of Spike Lee,” he says.

The backlash was swift and perhaps predictable. Why was a wealthy, famous, well-connected director taking funds from a site that usually helps entrepreneurs who are none of those things? His answer was that he had been doing Kickstarter before Kickstarter, raising funds from individuals to finance “Red Hook Summer” and “Malcolm X”. (He could have done worse than quote from our article showing how high-profile users of crowdfunding are rainmakers for the sites.)

Mr Lee’s frequent, exuberant Tweeting helped create a buzz among his fans, while cries of outraged condemnation grabbed international headlines. An imaginative array of Spike Lee-related rewards proved irresistible to the shallow- and deep-pocketed alike ($5 for a vintage pin or autographed patch, $10,000 for dinner and courtside seats at a New York Knicks game with the director himself). While the staff at 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, his production company, prepared to ship hundreds of pieces of memorabilia around the world, Mr Lee exceeded his goal, raising over $1.4m from over 6,000 backers in 30 days.

Work on the soundtrack also took an unusual turn. The artist that Mr Lee had originally approached to provide the songs had not worked with a Kickstarter project before and the deal couldn’t be finalised. At this point Mr Lee again decided to cut out the middleman. “Thinking about the spirit of this film,” he says, “I thought about all the unsigned artists out there in the world.” Again he took to Twitter with a request for submissions. The result was 800 songs from which he selected 12, and those artists now have a soundtrack deal.

One last hurdle remains for this indie film-maker. “Distribution is always a problem,” he says. “We are not leaving any rock unturned.” He thinks combining a modest, traditional cinema release with digital release may be the best prospect. “Netflix are going to see this film. We are investigating iTunes and Amazon, everything.”

“There’s a ton of talented people out there and all they need is a shot, a platform, a chance,” says Mr Lee. It remains to be seen whether the film is well received, but the project should at least achieve those aims, by giving roles to unknown actors, entrusting editing and photography to graduate students, and giving record deals to newcomers. Kickstarter’s entrepreneurs have benefited from a high-profile rainmaker and fans will hope he decides to campaign again. Has he got sufficient goodies to tempt future fundraisers? “I’ve been making films for three decades”, he says, “and I don’t throw away anything.”